I'll Help You Carry On
by sapphiresnowx
Summary: Finn meets someone through playing Halo online, and finds out that his online video game buddy is someone that he knows in real life.


It's a well-known fact that when Finn is trying to escape from anything that's pressuring him, he turns to his X-Box and enters its appealing world of cartoon/fantasy violence. So when Rachel broke up with him to pursue her dreams – dreams which he was clearly not a part of - Finn retreated to his bedroom, turned on his X-Box and began a well-needed de-stressing period, courtesy of Halo: Reach.

"_I'm sorry Finn, but I don't need this distraction right now. I need to focus on my dreams of being on Broadway in New York; I can't have anything tying me down or breaking my focus."_

"_But I thought we had fixed this? During Nationals, you seemed to – "_

"_You _saw_ what happened during Nationals. An unnecessary distraction, that kiss, caused us to lose. I _can't_ have my dreams end the same way." _

_And with that, she turned down the narrow hallway of McKinley High, not once looking back. _

Hastily wiping away tears from the painful memory, Finn focused his attention on the task at hand – completing the daily challenge of killing 100 enemies in multiplayer matchmaking mode. Having set it so that he played with people who spoke English and were at a similar skill level to him, Finn wasn't surprised when a voice emanating from his headset congratulated him on his latest kill. After a few hours of online play, Finn and his new friend had managed to complete the challenge, all the while discussing strategy, other video games they enjoyed and football.

Finn was just in the middle of running through the problems of a football play that his fellow teammate had suggested when he noticed that his friend wasn't responding. He was just about to comment on it, hoping his friend wasn't bored by Finn's rant, when he heard music playing.

_Here we go again, I kinda want to be more than friends so take it easy on me, I'm afraid you're never satisfied -_

"_Hey. I'll be down in a minute. Okay. Love you too."_

"Um, are you still there?"

"_I'm really sorry, but I have to go now. Dinner reservation at Breadstix, you know how they get when you're late. What's your gamertag? I'll add you quickly before I go, then we can play some other time."_

"Fr4nk3nt33n," replied Finn.

A moment later, there was a request from M00nsh03sP0tt3r, who Finn assumed was his new friend. Suddenly losing interest in Halo, Finn shut off his X-Box and lay in bed, thinking about his new friend.

The next day, after a tedious Glee club rehearsal, Finn returned home and turned on X-Box, hoping that his new friend was online. Sure enough, M00nsh03sP0tt3r was available and, like the night before, the boys began talking instantly.

"So, how was your date last night? Well, I'm guessing it was a date, unless you were out with your mom or something..."

The voice on the other end of the headset laughed. _"It was a date, and it went really well. I'm not going to bore you with the details of what we wore, what we ate and what we said, so I'll just say that I have a feeling this relationship is going to last. How about you? Do you have a girlfriend?"_

Finn could have just answered the question with a simple "no" and moved on, but there was just something about this online friend that made him comfortable enough to share the entire breakup drama that occurred.

"I really like this girl. Love her, even. And everything was going pretty well. We were in New York for Nationals and she rejected me, claiming that she needed to focus on her dreams. Then when we were performing, she kissed me. That kiss gave me hope, but cost us Nationals. She saw what happened and didn't want her dreams to be crushed by a 'distraction' like that."

There was a brief pause before his friend said, _"I don't want to sound harsh or anything but, while that kiss was passionate, it was somewhat tasteless and the judges saw that. It's not fair to blame your loss on the kiss though; making it into the top 20 is remarkable, especially for a Glee club's first year at Nationals. I'm sure she'll come around and realize that the best thing to do right now is to pursue the goal of Nationals for next year, rather than an individual goal. Take your relationship one step at a time – don't look too far to the future, and don't dwell on the past."_

After his friend had to leave, Finn impulsively decided to call Rachel and try to work things out. After having essentially repeated what his online friend had said, there was a stunned silence coming from the other end of the line.

"_Don't look too far to the future and don't dwell on the past... just focus on the present," _Rachel murmured_. "I guess I _have _been acting selfishly and I haven't been thinking about the team at all. You do have to realize that once high school is over, I will be moving to New York to pursue my Broadway career, and you probably won't be following me. Until then, we can just make the most of what time we have left, like you suggested."_

By the end of the night, when Finn finally decided to go to bed, he was in a better mood thanks to his new online friend's advice. His friend seemed to know him on a personal level, his advice resonated with Finn and, most importantly, his advice _worked_.

Soon Finn's new friend became his go-to guy when he had an issue. When he needed advice on how to get Quinn to stop obsessing over him, he went to his online friend. When he needed an opinion on a song choice for Glee club or when he needed to know what to get Kurt for his birthday, Finn turned on his X-Box and asked his new friend for help. This dependency on his online friend grew and grew until Finn finally set up a date for them to meet, since he needed advice on how to get Rachel to stop being angry with him after another huge argument.

The designated meeting spot was Starbuck's at 4:30, giving Finn enough time to arrive after Glee rehearsal and allowing his new friend time to drive in, since he didn't live in Lima. Finn arrived at exactly 4:30, entering the building and scouring the tables, hoping to see his online friend. However, not knowing what his friend looked like or even his name, made this incredibly difficult. Dejected, Finn went to sit at a table by himself. A moment later, he felt a hand on his shoulder and heard a voice saying,

"You wouldn't by chance happen to be Frankenteen, would you?"

Finn jumped slightly, before recognizing the voice - it was his online friend! He turned around, his smile freezing on his face as he recognized the person standing behind him.

"Blaine? _You're_ the guy I came to meet? Aw, man. My new best friend is my stepbrother's boyfriend."

Blaine laughed. "Come on, let me buy you a coffee, and we'll talk about your problems with Rachel. Then, if you'd like, we can play some X-Box. I just got the new Call of Duty game and I've been looking for someone to play it on multiplayer mode with."

"But what about Kurt?" Finn asked tentatively.

Ever since Kurt had transferred back to McKinley, he and Blaine had been spending nearly every night together after Glee rehearsal. Stealing Kurt's boyfriend for the night was sure to make Kurt angry and Finn had seen Kurt's anger firsthand, so he knew that it was not a force that he wanted to reckon with.

"Kurt and the girls have gone on a shopping trip, so I figure we have a good four hours until they're home, which is plenty of time to sort out this relationship drama and play Black Ops."

Finn smiled. Maybe being best friends with his stepbrother's boyfriend wasn't _that_ bad after all.


End file.
